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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28728321">Curve-Ball of Eternal Fact</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_rck/pseuds/the_rck'>the_rck</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Calvin &amp; Hobbes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Friendship, Gen, Growing Up Together, unanswered questions</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 12:06:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>762</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28728321</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_rck/pseuds/the_rck</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"Are you doing it on purpose?" Calvin asked the day after his eleventh birthday. He and Hobbes were in the woods. Calvin had gone out and found Hobbes waiting for him.</p><p>Calvin's mother got a little funny now when she saw Calvin carrying Hobbes, so Calvin had decided that Hobbes had to be responsible for his own transportation.</p><p>Hobbes was on a branch over Calvin's head. "Doing what?"</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>77</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Bulletproof 20/21</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Curve-Ball of Eternal Fact</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gammarad/gifts">Gammarad</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Eventually, Calvin stopped talking to people about Hobbes. He never forgot that Hobbes was there, and Hobbes didn't seem to mind, but Calvin still felt bad about it.</p><p>Also, he'd watched enough movies to know that the person nobody paid attention to was always important to the plot. He didn't think Hobbes was going to turn out to be a double agent or a murderer or a thief, but he wondered.</p><p>"Are you doing it on purpose?" Calvin asked the day after his eleventh birthday. He and Hobbes were in the woods. Calvin had gone out and found Hobbes waiting for him.</p><p>Calvin's mother got a little funny now when she saw Calvin carrying Hobbes, so Calvin had decided that Hobbes had to be responsible for his own transportation.</p><p>Hobbes was on a branch over Calvin's head. "Doing what?"</p><p>"The..." Calvin hesitated. He could make up words for it. Normally, he would, but this was a real question. "You're there when I look for you, even when you're not, and the only time anyone else sees you is when you're sitting on my bed."</p><p>"Oh, that." Hobbes leapt to another branch and lay down on it. "Do you think I can do the Cheshire Cat?" He grinned broadly. "My tail should go first, right?"</p><p>Calvin wanted to chase that idea because, if Hobbes could do it, Hobbes could probably teach Calvin. "Are you an alien?"</p><p>"...No." Hobbes didn't sound entirely sure. "I'm a tiger. Do I have to be something else?"</p><p>"You're real," Calvin said, "but I'm not sure you're a tiger. Not exactly." He looked up at his best friend. "If this is one of those stories where, if I say the wrong thing, you'll disappear forever, throw something at me, and I'll stop talking."</p><p>Calvin waited.</p><p>Hobbes said nothing. His tail lashed, but he didn't move otherwise.</p><p>Calvin waited. After almost five minutes, he said, "You can be a tiger. If you want. You just don't have to be only that. You were never only that even if that's all I saw."</p><p>Hobbes didn't say anything, so Calvin sat down.</p><p>After what felt like forever, Hobbes said, "I don't remember. You were... You're <em>Calvin</em>." He said the name with the same looming certainty that a person might say 'That's the Great Wall of China,' as if Calvin was important and singular and universally recognizable.</p><p>"And you're Hobbes." Calvin wished that Hobbes would come down from the tree. Calvin didn't like the distance, not when he was asking questions that might make Hobbes leave.</p><p>"You're <em>mine</em>," Hobbes said. "You're where I fit, and I don't want to go." His claws dug into the bark. "I don't have to be a tiger. That's just how we fit when I found you. I don't know what happens when we don't."</p><p>"We still do," Calvin said. "I just... You're not my stuffed tiger. You never were." He wasn't entirely sure about the second part, but he had evidence for the first part.</p><p>Hobbes landed lightly on the ground about ten feet away from Calvin. "I thought I was."</p><p>"Because I thought you were?"</p><p>Hobbes shrugged. "You needed an external locus." He covered his mouth with both paws the way he always did when he made a noise that embarrassed him.</p><p>Calvin really hoped that Hobbes wasn't going to dissolve into sea foam or explode in a storm of feathers. It would look cool, and Calvin would do whatever quest he had to in order to get Hobbes back, but...</p><p>Calvin might not get Hobbes back.</p><p>Neither of them moved for several seconds.</p><p>Calvin considered what 'external locus' might mean. He pointed at Hobbes and said, "You could have been keeping me company at school the whole time! You wouldn't have got dirty or lost or-- or anything!"</p><p>Hobbes lay flat on the ground and put his paws over his face. It was a much more dog-like movement than Calvin was used to seeing from Hobbes. "School was <em>boring</em>! And you learned for both of us."</p><p>Hobbes had, Calvin recalled, got better at reading as Calvin did.</p><p>"Ha!" Calvin said. "You were sleeping the whole time! Bet you can't say the times twelve tables!"</p><p>"Don't need to!" Hobbes stuck out his tongue at Calvin. Hobbes looked much more like himself, so Calvin smiled in return.</p><p>There'd be time, later, to find the shape of whatever Hobbes actually was. Calvin still wanted to know, but he didn't think Hobbes knew, either. They'd figure it out eventually.</p><p>For now, being a tiger and his boy was enough.</p>
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